When a 31-year-old Black Cleveland activist named Antoine Tolbert openly carried a shotgun on St. Clair Avenue on Cleveland鈥檚 East Side recently, he wasn鈥檛 violating any laws.
It鈥檚 always been legal in Ohio to openly carry a firearm in your hand or in a holster outside your clothing. Tolbert had a shotgun in one hand and a handgun in a holster on his leg.
He still ended up in jail for a night after a very tense encounter with police. The repercussions that followed completely upended his life.
In video Tolbert made of the encounter, a police officer can be heard saying, Sir, you can鈥檛 walk down the street with a gun in your hand.鈥�
鈥淭his is an open carry state,鈥� Tolbert said in response.
鈥淧ut the gun down. Put the gun down,鈥� multiple officers could be heard shouting at Tolbert.
Ohio鈥檚 Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. According to Buckeye Firearms Foundation Executive Director Dean Rieck, Tolbert wasn鈥檛 committing a crime.
鈥淭here is no legal reason for the police to arrest anyone for open carrying who is not otherwise committing a crime,鈥� Rieck said.
A spokesperson for the Cleveland Division of Police did not respond to questions about Tolbert鈥檚 arrest or whether the department was reviewing the officers鈥� actions.
Tolbert's walk started at the Rite Aid at the corner of East 105th Street and the final encounter with police was at East 89th Street.
The first call to police was made by someone at that drug store who saw Tolbert take a shotgun out of the trunk of his car. The police report said people were running and screaming when they saw Tolbert wearing body armor and carrying his shotgun.
Tolbert disputes that description of the scene outside the Rite Aid.
鈥淭he crazy part is, we do these armed patrols once a week, especially once the weather gets warm.鈥� Tolbert said during a visit to the neighborhood a week after the incident.
Tolbert is chairman of a community organization called New Era Cleveland. One of the things they do is organize armed patrols in neighborhoods with gun violence.
Tolbert鈥檚 group, which has been featured by and local , began the patrols last year. They usually go out in groups.
Tolbert went out by himself the morning of May 23 鈥� shortly after 14-year-old Abe鈥檅re鈥檃nna Jackson was killed by gunfire that hit her home nearby.
That鈥檚 what Tolbert told the first Cleveland police officer to pull up and ask him what he was doing.
That officer let him continue on his way.
Another, identified in the police report as Patrol Officer Santa, pulled up shortly after that, and their encounter was captured on video.
鈥淟isten man, a lot of people don鈥檛 like that you鈥檙e kind of walking around with a gun,鈥� Santa said to Tolbert.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a personal problem,鈥� Tolbert responded.
鈥淲e just want to make sure you鈥檙e OK,鈥� Santa said.
Officer Santa stayed by her car, kept her distance from Tolbert and eventually let him continue on his way.
Tolbert points out that Cleveland police knew him. He鈥檚 spoken to cadet classes about community engagement. Tolbert recognized the officer in the car with Officer Santa from one of those classes.
But according to the police report, things changed when a Sergeant Henderson decided Tolbert would be detained. Detectives and members of the specialized K-9 unit responded.
鈥淎t that moment, I was like, wait a minute, something is seriously wrong here,鈥� Tolbert said. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking around, there鈥檚 a K-9 in the middle of the street that was trying to get me. I was not putting my gun down so this K-9 can attack me or so you can shoot me.鈥�
Henderson can be seen in the video blocking Tolbert鈥檚 path on the sidewalk, taking cover with his gun raised a few feet away.
Tolbert was initially charged with carrying a concealed weapon and inducing panic. Both of those charges were dropped, but first Tolbert spent a night in the Cuyahoga County Jail.
鈥淓ven if the encounter with police itself wasn鈥檛 traumatizing, everything that occurred the weeks after most certainly were,鈥� Tolbert said.
After the arrest, Tolbert said he had to move out of his house because his wife鈥檚 ex-husband was using video of the encounter to seek full custody of their young child.
He lost his job at the nonprofit community development organization Burten, Bell, Carr. Executive Director Joy Johnson, Tolbert鈥檚 former boss, says she found the video troubling.
鈥淗e did from what I can see everything that the law allows him to do, but sometimes you just have to think about what鈥檚 at stake, besides the letter of the law,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淒o you want to be right and dead or do you want to be right and alive? And so those are the kinds of decisions we have to make in the heat of the moment.鈥�
Burten, Bell, Carr had in the past also approached Tolbert鈥檚 group, New Era Cleveland, about providing security at shopping centers, but that didn鈥檛 end up moving forward.
Johnson also said her organization wants to stay out of debates over gun rights that Tolbert鈥檚 video brings up.
鈥淭here are organizations out there that are fighting that fight,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淲e are not fighting that fight or Second Amendment rights as a community development organization.鈥�
Tolbert said he鈥檒l keep going out with New Era Cleveland on armed patrols in Cleveland neighborhoods.
He鈥檚 considering taking legal action against the city.
